“As
fossil fuel prices rise, as oil insecurity deepens, and as concerns about
climate change cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new energy economy is
emerging in the United States,”Ě says Lester R. Brown, President of the Earth
Policy Institute, in a recent release,¬†“New Energy Economy Emerging in the United States”Ě . “The old energy economy, fueled by oil, coal,
and natural gas, is being replaced by one powered by wind, solar, and
geothermal energy. The transition is moving at a pace and on a scale that we
could not have imagined even a year ago.”Ě

Long the leading oil-producing state, Texas is also the leading generator of electricity from
wind, having overtaken California.
Texas has
nearly 6,000 megawatts of wind-generating capacity online and a staggering
39,000 megawatts in the construction and planning stages. When all this is
completed, Texas will more than satisfy the
residential needs of the state’s 24 million people, enabling Texas to feed electricity to nearby states.

ADVERTISEMENT

¬† ¬†

Other
states are emerging as wind superpowers. Clipper Windpower and BP are teaming
up to build the 5,050-megawatt Titan wind farm, the world’s largest, in eastern
South Dakota.
Titan will generate five times as much electricity as the state’s 780,000
residents currently use. This project includes building a transmission line
along an abandoned rail line across Iowa,
feeding electricity into Illinois
and the country’s industrial heartland.See more examples.

In the east, Maine
is planning to develop 3,000 megawatts of wind-generating capacity, far more
than the state’s 1.3 million residents need. Further south, Delaware is planning an offshore wind farm
of up to 600 megawatts, which could satisfy half of the state’s residential
electricity needs. New York
State, which has 700 megawatts
of wind-generating capacity, plans to add another 8,000 megawatts. Soon Oregon will nearly
double its wind generating capacity with a 900-megawatt wind farm in the
wind-rich Columbia River Gorge.

Solar power is also expanding at a breakneck pace.
The nation’s wealth of solar energy is being harnessed by using both
photovoltaic cells and solar thermal power plants to convert sunlight into
electricity. The largest U.S. solar cell installation today is a 14-megawatt
array at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, but photovoltaic electricity at the
commercial level is about to go big time. PG&E has entered into two solar
cell power contracts with a combined capacity of 800 megawatts. Together, these
plants will have a peak output comparable to that of a large coal-fired power
plant.

Solar thermal plants that use mirrors to concentrate
sunlight on a vessel containing a fluid have suddenly become an enormously
attractive technology. There are now 10 large solar thermal power plants under
construction or in development in the United States, ranging in size from
180 megawatts to 550 megawatts. Within the next three years, the United States
will likely go from 420 megawatts of solar thermal generating capacity to close
to 3,500 megawatts.

Geothermal energy is also developing at an explosive
rate. As of 2008 the United
States has nearly 3,000 megawatts of
geothermal generating capacity. Suddenly this too is changing. Some 96
geothermal power plants now under development are expected to double U.S. geothermal
generating capacity. With California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah
leading the way, the stage is set for the massive future development of
geothermal energy. (See¬†additional data.)

To ensure that this shift continues at a rapid rate,
national leadership is needed in one key area—building a strong national grid.
Although private investors are investing in long-distance high-voltage
transmission lines, these need to be incorporated into a carefully planned
national grid in order to unleash the full potential of renewable energy
wealth.